USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V. 2 > Part 24
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In the year 1820 the final excavation of the high ground was completed, and in 1822 a public garden was opened, and soon became a popular resort for the neighboring inhabitants, to whom refreshments were served from the main building. A turtle feast became, also, a standard entertainment, and was frequently presented to an appreciative public by a society gifted with a knowledge of such culinary accomplishments.
Having thus passed through all the mutations of city suburban property, these premises followed the fortunes of other localities; the street commis- sioner made his influence felt; streets and avenues were opened ; buildings were demolished or removed ; profile maps came into vogue ; hills disappeared
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APPENDIX II.
and valleys were filled; until at length the old Richmond Hill mansion found itself shorn of all its grandeur, stripped of its verdant groves, despoiled of its gardens and lawns, sitting sadly, far beneath its former altitude, at the noisy and somewhat unsavory corner of Charlton and Varick Streets. Its stately portals no longer opened wide to welcome the entrance of distinguished guests from foreign lands, or the brilliant crowds who came to mingle in the gay receptions of joyous and sparkling Theodosia. Poor Theodosia ! whose grave had been made for her beneath the surging billows of the ocean.
Alas ! for the changes wrought by the relentless hand of Time! The tenacity of life with the old mansion was remarkable; and, after the gardens had ceased to be remunerative and other similar attractions had failed, a new and more pretentious effort was made to embellish its history and to keep . alive, a little longer, the distinction attached to its name. On its new foundation the house was placed with its front, still wearing the adornments of columns and balconies, some twenty feet withdrawn from Varick Street, extending along the line of Charlton Street. About the year 1831 the premises were leased and a new building constructed, in the rear, connected with the principal edifice and running back about fifty feet, with the view to form a dramatic temple, under the title of " The Richmond Hill Theatre." When completed. the management of the establishment was entrusted to Mr. Richard Russell, an experienced and respectable member of the theatrical profession.
Shortly before the opening night the manager invited, by public notice and the offer of a prize, the co-operation of our city's literati in the production of a Poetical Address for the occasion. The committee selected to award the prize sat in one of the reception chambers of the old time-honored mansion. It was an afternoon to be remembered. As the twilight deepened into the evening, the shadows of departed hosts and long-forgotten guests seemed to hover round the dilapidated halls and dismantled chambers. Silence and a saddening gloom weighed heavily on the spirits of the selected party. But the lights came, the feeling of depression soon passed away, and the disordered fancy was roused to resume the duty of the hour.
Mr. Gulian C. Verplanck was chosen to break the seals of a couple of dozen envelopes. The writer of this paper was permitted to be a sharer in the cere- montes. As the poems were read, or glanced at, some few were placed on the right hand, but much the larger number on the left. Of course there could be but little hesitation in making up the final verdict. The successful competitor bore the name of Fitz-Greene .. Halleck ; and, with these pages, the original manuscript of the following beautiful poem is placed in the hands of the editor of The Historical Magazine ; .
PRIZE POEM
WRITTEN FOR THE OPENING OF THE RICHMOND HILL THEATRE.
Where dwells the Drama's Spirit ?- not alone Beneath the palace-roof, beside the throne, In learning's cloisters, friendship's festal bowers, Arts pictur'd halls, or triumph's laurel'd towers- Where'er man's pulses beat, or passions play, She joys to smile or sigh his thoughts away. Crowd times and scenes within her ring of power, And teach a life's experience in an hour.
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APPENDIX II.
To night she greets, for the first time, our dome, Her latest, may it prove her lasting home, And we, her messengers, delighted stand, The summoned Ariels of her mystic wand, To ask your welcome. . . Be it yours to give Bliss to her coming hours, and bid her live Within these walls, new-hallowed in her cause, Long in the nurturing warmth of your applause.
'Tis in the public smiles, the public loves, His dearest home, the actor breathes and moves; Your plaudits are, to us, and to our art, As is the life-blood to the human heart ; And every power that bids the leaf be green In nature. acts on this her mimic scene. Our sunbeams are the sparklings of glad eyes, Our winds, the whisper of applause that flies From lip to lip, the heart-born laugh of glee, And sounds of cordial hands that ring out merrily ; And heaven's own dew falls on us in the tear That woman weeps o'er sorrows pictur'd here, When crowded feelings have no words to tell The might, the magic of the actor's spell.
These have been ours, and do we hope in vain, Here, oft, and deep, to feel them ours again ? No-while the weary heart can find repose From its own pains in fictions, joys, or woes ; While there are open lips and dimpled cheeks When music breathes, or wit or humor speaks; While Shakspeare's master spirit can call up Noblest and holiest thoughts, and brim the cup Of life with bubbles bright as happiness, Cheating the willing bosom into bliss; So long will those who, in their spring of youth, Have listened to the drama's voice of truth ! Marked in her scenes the manners of their age, And gathered knowledge for a wider stage ; Come here to speed with smiles life's summer years, And melt its winter's snow with warmnest tears ; And younger hearts. when ours are hushed and cold, Be happy here, as we bave been of old.
Friends of the stage ! who hail it as the shrine Where music, painting, poetry entwine Their wedded garlands, whence their blended power Refines, exalts, ennobles, hour by hour, The spirit of the land; and, like the wind, Unseen, but felt, bears on the bark of mind ; To you. the hour that consecrates this dome Will call up dreams of prouder hours to come, When some creating Poet, born your own, May waken here the drama's loftiest tone, Through after years to echo loud and long; A Shakspeare of the west-a star of song ! Brightening your own blue skies with living fire, All climes to gladden, and all tongues inspire, Far as beneath the heaven, by sea-winds fanned. Floats the tree banner of your native land.
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APPENDIX II.
However promising may have been the opening of the theatrical specula- tion, it did not, in the end, restore the fortunes or rescue the name of the Richmond Hill House. The situation was not well adapted for such a place of amusement, and its existence was not a protracted one.
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What is known as " the regular drama "-tragedies and comedies-failing to attract sufficient support, an operatic company was called into requisition. Some well-appointed musical entertainments were offered, but usually with inadequate results. One of the most effective performers in Italian opera, and with a superb voice, was presented at this house. Pedroti will long be remem- bered for her charming acting and singing.
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Several of the actors, of established reputations, from other theaters, appeared here for short engagements. Cooper occasionally reminded his admirers of an early day of the gratification his acting had afforded them ; while those well-remembered favorites, Mr. and Mrs. Hilson, whose names were household words with a New York audience, sometimes wandered away from the Park to receive a cordial welcome at Richmond Hill. But the chief incident in this dramatic episode was the entrance into the management of John Barnes, so long and well known as one of the leading comic actors from the Park company.
Mr. and Mrs. Barnes were sterling performers. They had brought from their old theatrical homestead all the prestige of a life-long stage success. They had also acquired a moderate competency in the practice of their profes- sion, and had won the warm regard and respect of a large community of friends of the drama, by the excellency of their deportment and habits of life. Mr. Barnes first appeared at the Park Theater, in the year 1816, and Mrs. Barnes at the same time. They both soon established themselves in public favor, and remained at the Park until the spring of the year 1832, when Mr. Barnes accepted the management of the new theater. The enterprise was a signal failure, much to the regret of those who witnessed the misfortune which befell · the manager and his accomplished companion.
In opening the second season, in May, 1832, Mrs. Barnes delighted ber audience by reciting a brilliant Address from the pen of a gentleman who shone among the literary lights of that day. Mr. Charles P. Clinch, with character- istic, but not to be commended, modesty, withheld his poem from the press, and it cannot, therefore, lend grace and beauty to these pages.
The theater, with the aid occasionally of a circus company, or a menagerie, continued its feeble existence for about ten years, and at the close of 1842 it finally surrendered to a fate that was inevitable-its doors were closed never again to be opened.
And thus passed away the glories and the shadows of Richmond Hill. All that remains of them are a few fleeting memories and a page or two of history fast fading into oblivion.
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APPENDIX III.
INSCRIPTION ON MONTGOMERY'S MONUMENT.
This Monument is erected by the order of Congress, 25th Janty, 1776, to transmit to posterity a grateful remem- brance of the patriotism, conduct, enterprise & perseverance of Major General Richard Montgomery, Who after a series of successes amidst the most discou- raging difficulties Fell in the attack on Quebec, 31st Decr 1775, Aged 37 years.
Invenit et sculpsit, Parisiis J.J. Caffieri, SculptorRegius, Anno Domini cbbcclxxvii
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THE STATE OF NEW YORK Caused the Remains of MAJOR GENL. RICHARD MONTGOMERY, To be conveyed from Quebec And deposited beneath this Monument, the 8th day of July, 1818.
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APPENDIX III.
LETTER FROM GENERAL MONTGOMERY.
General Richard Montgomery was born December 2, 1736, not at Convoy, as sometimes stated, but at Swords; Feltrim, near Swords, having been a resi- . dence of different members of the family, and indeed at times of Thomas Montgomery.
The events leading to Richard Montgomery's design of coming to America have always been involved in obscurity, but the following, which I have not before seen, may give the whole clue to his emigration :* " You no doubt will be surprised when I tell you I have taken the resolution of quitting the ser- vice and dedicating the rest of my life to husbandry, for which I have of late conceived a violent passion. A passion I am determined to indulge in, quit- ting the career of glory for the substantial comforts of independence. My frequent disappointments with respect to preferment, the little prospect of future advancement to a man who has no friends able or willing to serve him, the mortification of seeing those of more interest getting before one, the little chance of having anything to do in the way of my profession, and that time of life approaching when rambling has no longer its charms, have confirmed me in the indulgence of my inclination. And as a man with little money cuts but a bad figure in this country among peers, nabobs, etc., etc., I have cast my eye on America, where my pride and poverty will be much more at their ease. This is an outline of my future plans." The tenor of this is borne out in a let-
. ter he wrote-one of the last he ever penned-to his father-in-law, Judge Liv- ingston, who died before the letter reached its address, at "Headquarters before Quebec, December 16, 1775. . . . Should my good fortune give me success, I shall as soon as possible return home. I have lost the ambition which once sweetened a military life-a sense of my duty is the only spring of action. I must leave the field to those who have a more powerful incentive. I think our affairs at present in so prosperous a situation that I may venture to indulge myself in that sort of life which alone gives me pleasure. Should the scene change, I shall always be ready to contribute my mite to the public · safety." Alas! for him and for his adopted country, what a change a fortnight brought to these bright dreams. But yet the letter to his father-in-law betrays - the cause of his failure in Quebec, the force of which, perhaps, his unflinching · spirit underestimated. "The unhappy passion for going home which prevails among the troops, has left me almost too weak to undertake the business I am about."
General Montgomery, soon after his coming to America in 1772, "laid out part of his money in the purchase of a farm and house near King's Bridge, about thirteen miles from the city of New York. Upon this he erected a small. fort, which was evacuated and has been ever since garrisoned by the British troops. . . . . After your brother's marriage, having acquired a tract of land by my sister, he laid out a considerable sum of money in building a dwelling-house and mills, which by his will were left to his widow."t This is
* MS. letter written to his cousin John Montgomery of Ballyleck, in the possession of General George S. Montgomery.
t Letter of Chancellor Livingston to Viscount Ranelagh, dated Salisbury, November 2, 1777.
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APPENDIX III.
Montgomery Place on the Hudson, now in the possession of Mrs. T. P. Barton, who inherited it from her aunt, Mrs. Montgomery.
Mrs. Montgomery kept up an intimate correspondence with members of her husband's family in Ireland, and many years after his death paid them a visit. There are many specimens of American trees at Convoy, the seed of which it is said she sent over. She died in 1828, aged eighty-five.
There is a very good portrait of the General at Beaulieu House, a photo- graph of which I have seen, and which, when compared with that at Mont- gomery Place, would make it appear that the latter was a copy of the former ; he must have sat for it at an earlier age than thirty-six, the period of his com- ing to America ; he is habited in a red coat, and had not yet resigned his com- mission in the British army.
General Montgomery left behind him but few memorials of his active and eventful life ; those that have come to light have mostly all appeared in the biographical notices already of him. His correspondence was sparse, but `good ; time may yet collect many of his letters still in private hands, and these, with other memorials which we hope are in store for the curious inquirer, may at a future day be given by some lover of his memory-and what Ameri- can does not merit this claim ?- to the public.
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APPENDIX IV.
NEW YORK CITY POST-OFFICE.
The history of the New York Post-office is to such an extent the history of the city itself, so far as regards its growth and prosperity, that the present work would not be complete without a more detailed account than the one given in the text. The following sketch is also from Harper's Magazine for October, 1871 :
There seems to be no preserved evidence that for very many years after the settlement of what is now known as the city of New York there was any offi- cially recognized post-office. The population was small in numbers, and there were no business inducements which would lead to much correspondence. The very first ships which arrived after the primitive settlement of course brought letters to New Amsterdam, and the commencement of our local office was naturally coeval with the foundation of the city ; but it was many years before there was a population which called for any system looking toward revenue.
On the arrival of the vessel those letters relating to the cargo were deliv- ered to the merchants; the members of the exulting, expecting crowd which welcomed their friends received their letters from hands warm with the grasp of friendship. If a solitary epistle found no owner, it was left in the possession of some responsible private citizen until called for. In time the intercourse with Holland increased, and there gradually developed a system of voluntary distribution which became eventually known as the " coffee-house delivery," which maintained its popularity and usefulness more than a hundred years.
This system grew out of the custom of masters of vessels, and the people from the settlements of Breucklyn, Pavonia, and the distant Hackensack, leaving at some agreed-upon popular tavern letters intrusted to them which they could not personally deliver. Here these " waifs" were kept in a small box, conveniently placed within the reach of all, or gibbeted ingeniously upon the surface of a smooth board, by means of green baize, tape, and brass-headed nails, the " composition " displayed the while, like some choice picture, in the most conspicuous part of the public room. There were hangers-on at these popular resorts who unconsciously acted as agents for this arcadian post : for
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APPENDIX IV.
they acquired temporary importance, and sometimes a bit of tobacco or a glass of Schiedam schnapps, by circulating information regarding the " letter list." It was a curious sight, these old depositories of commercial speculations and homely friendships. Many were the neglected letters which were taken and examined by the simple-hearted old burghers, until the superscriptions were entirely defaced by the handling. Crabbed writing must, under the best cir- cumstances, have made the characteristic and familiar Holland names of Guys- bert van Imbroecken and Ryndert Jansen van Hooghten appear very much like an imitation of a Virginia fence; but when these same letters became here and there defaced and stained by soiling fingers, the superscription must have been a jumble indeed. It is asserted, however, that the possible contents of these " literary orphans" were sources of infinite gossip to the loungers at the tavern, for they would sit silently and smoke for long hours thinking over the important matter, occasionally uttering the vague speculation that they "were written by somebody ;" and after this severe effort of conjectural thought would lapse again into dreamy somnolency. 1
The tradition, however, is doubtful that the earlier Dutch governors received their official dispatches through the coffee-house delivery, and con- tinued so to do up to the time of the testy and resolute Stuyvesant, who con- ceived the idea that more rapid communication with the gubernatorial head- quarters might be had by sending these important documents, without any circumlocution, to his official residence.
. For many years, even after the English took possession of New York, the coffee-house delivery was really the people's institution for the distribution of written information. The custom continued with the population of the sea. port towns of turning out and greeting the arrival of every important vessel, and there followed the consequent exchange of congratulations, inquiries, and let- ters ; and even after a more comprehensive and responsible system was demanded, it was difficult to get the people to wholly change their old and confirmed ways, to depart from habits associated with so many pleasant traditions.
. But this simple style of conducting business gradually became inefficient ; and the "mother country," after England assumed the maternal position, turned its attention to the establishment of post-offices throughout the few à nsely settled portions of the colonies. At this period, toward the close of the seventeenth century (1672), New York boasted of five thousand inhabit- ants. Both Philadelphia and Boston were her superiors in population and commercial importance, and their citizens entered upon the new arrangements with actively expressed zeal. But New York in spirit remained a mere vil- lage, for its old population was quite satisfied with things as they were, and resolutely maintained its correspondence, whenever it was possible, through private means. An innovation on this custom was evidently made by an offi- cial order, issued in 1686, that ship-letters must be sent to the customi-house ; and we presume that the municipal government came to the rescue in 1692, by passing an act establishing a post-office.
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In the year 1710 the Postmaster-General of Great Britain directed the establishment of a " chief letter office " in the city of New York, Philadelphia having been previously made the headquarters of the colonial organization. In the succeeding year arrangements were completed for the delivery of the
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APPENDIX IV.
Boston mail twice a month, and propositions to establish a foot post to Albany were advertised. The New York Gazette, for the week ending the 3d of May, 1732, has the following interesting advertisement :
" The New York Post-office will be removed to-morrow to the uppermost of the two houses on Broadway, opposite Beaver Street.
RICHARD NICHOL, Esq., P. M."
In 1740 a complete road was " blazed " from Paulus Hook (Jersey City) to Philadelphia, over which road, without any stated intervals of time, the mail was carried on horseback between Philadelphia and New York.
Twenty-one years (1753) after the notice we have quoted of the removal of the New York post-office to Broadway we find it still in the same location, but designated as being opposite Bowling Green, and that it would be open every day, save Saturday afternoon and Sunday, from 8 to 12 A. M., except on post nights, when attendance would be given until ten at night. Signed, Alexan- der Colden, Deputy-postmaster, and Secretary and Comptroller.
Dr. Franklin must have been very active in the establishment of postal facilities throughout the colonies; for in the year 1753, much to his personal satisfaction, he was appointed Postmaster-General, with a small salary, which, it was quaintly added, " he could have if he could get it." But in spite of the establishment of a city post forty years previously, New York did not attract any special attention., and the revenues derived therefrom are not mentioned, while those of Boston and Philadelphia have frequent notice. It is probable that the municipal and the colonial authorities carried on much of their cor- respondence through agents, who were left to their own ways, the habits of the mass of the people confining them to their old notions of volunteer distribu- tion, which was also encouraged by the high rates of postage. So long, indeed, did the coffee-house delivery maintain its popularity, that we find "the consti- tuted officials" complaining of the fact as injuring the revenue, and finally an attempt was made to break up the custom by the publication of severe penalties.
In Dr. Franklin's celebrated examination before the House of Commons committee on the situation of the colonies we find the following questions and answers, evidently aimed at the coffee-house distribution of letters :
COMMITTEE -- Do not letters often come into the post-offices of America directed to inland towns where no post goes ?
. DR. FRANKLIN-Yes.
COMMITTEE-Can any private person take up these letters and carry them as directed ?
DR. FRANKLIN - Yes, a friend of the person may do it, paying the postage that has accrued.
But for many years, in spite of this governmental opposition, New York city kept up the custom. The coffee-houses maintained their popularity. To them resorted the chief men and the wits of the town. At them were to be met the sea-captains and strangers from abroad, and gossip answered the place of the daily paper ; and there was kept up the " card-rack," sticking full of letters and business notices ; nor would public opinion severely condemn this custom, so peculiar to New York. Even the first Tontine Coffee-house, as it was called, had its place for exchanging letters. It was not until it was
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APPENDIX IV.
found out by experience that a well-regulated city post was safer, of less trouble, and more expeditious, that the coffee-house letter distribution came to an end.
The oppressions of the colonies by the British Government occasioned & novel form of indignation, which expressed itself by the decided patronage of "what appears to have been a " continental post," which was carried on in opposition to the one under the control of the English Postmaster-general, for we find a notice that the deputy of the British Government was vainly endea- voring to keep up a post-office.
Alexander Colden remained postmaster up to the breaking out of the Rev- olution, for in the year previous (1775) his name appears in the Gazette in con- nection with the office, and with the additional one of agent for the English packets, which sailed once a month.
Upon the British troops taking possession of New York, the old record of the post-office disappears. For seven years it was abolished by the exactions of the provost-marshal, and little correspondence ensued not connected with the movements of troops. William Bedlow was the first postmaster after the close of the war, as his name appears in that connection in 1785; but in the succeeding year (1786) Sebastian Bauman was postmaster; and in the first directory of the city ever published-in which we find nine hundred and twenty-six names of citizens, the members of Congress, etc., John Hancock, Esq., President-is the following advertisement :
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